John & Frances Aleman
Buckeye/Williams- Maricopa/Coconino County
Inducted in 2024
This family is one of the many who made the excellent sheep era in Arizona possible. Arizona once had two million sheep, and now there are only a few thousand. The Alemans contributed their legacy in promoting lamb and wool in Arizona and nationwide.
Juan Manual Aleman, a Spanish-Basque from the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain, was born in August 1894. He came to America in March 1914 and started as a camp cook for a sheep company in Winslow, Arizona. A few months later, Juan moved to Flagstaff and went to work for M.P. Espil & M. I. Powers at Frisco Mountain Sheep Co. Juan worked there for 12 years. He saved his money until 1926, when he partnered with Mike Echeverria in the Cross Mountain Sheep Company near Seligman, Arizona. In 1935, Juan partnered with Joe and Leon Pouquette northeast of Williams, Arizona. Finally, he started the John Aleman Sheep Company in 1952. In 1967, his son, John Jr, joined him, and it became the John Aleman and Son Sheep Company.
John was an active sheep producer in Arizona for 58 years. He was a member of the Arizona Wool Growers Association, the director for 27 years, and the Kaibab Advisory Board director for 20 years. He was listed in Who Is Who in Arizona in 1958.
John met his wife, Frances Abbie Hendrix, who was born in Illinois and migrated to Arizona from St. Louis in 1929 at her father’s Box H Ranch near St. Johns, Arizona. They enjoyed a unique courtship riding the range on horseback and working with the sheep. They were married in July 1936 in Phoenix. It was the beginning of a beautiful life together for over thirty-six years.
Frances became very active in promoting lamb and wool. In 1948, she and Ora Chipman of Utah co-founded the Make It Yourself With Wool competition, sponsored by the Women’s Auxiliary to the National Wool Growers Association. In 1968, the American Sheep Producers Council started the annual Aleman-Chipman Scholarship Award. A senior was honored for their contribution to introducing young people across the country to the beauty of woolen garments.
In 1958, Frances and several other women in Arizona’s sheep industry started the Arizona Wool Growers Auxiliary. She was the Charter President and served for twelve consecutive years. Frances also served in the National Women’s Auxiliary offices and was elected President in January 1971, serving for two years. She served an additional two years as the National Press correspondent and was later appointed the Historian.
Chairman for the American Sheep Industry. Here, she spent over 3½ years gathering histories from sheep families across the country for the book “Sheep and Man: An American Saga,” printed by the American Sheep Producers Council in 1978. The editors gave her special acknowledgment for her work.
Throughout these years, in addition to Make It Yourself With Wool, she organized and worked on lamb and wool promotions, including the National Miss Wool beauty pageant, demonstrations at numerous grade schools, high schools, Arizona State University, University of Arizona, 4-H clubs, Boy and Girl Scouts, the Arizona State Fair, Christown Mall, and on television and numerous newspaper interviews.
They held an annual Lamb and Wool Fall Fiesta at Christown Mall, where a complete sheep camp was set up, including ewes and lambs and a sheep shearing exhibition. On the last day, a full-fledged sheep camp dinner was served to an average of over 1,000 people. In 1968, she was named Woman of the Year by Christowners Business & Professional Women’s Club. She also served several years on the advisory board of the Town and Country Life Conference at the University of Arizona and was honored for her service.
She worked tirelessly to promote lamb and wool while moving two times a year up and down the mountains between Buckeye and Williams. She would move all household goods and their son Johnnie. John Sr. would be with the sheep during this time. As a young girl, Frances suffered from tuberculosis, losing part of a lung, which weakened her and caused many bouts of illness and hospitalization throughout her life. She had a strong will and recovered many times to return to doing the things she loved dearly: her family, cooking, and especially her passion, promoting lamb and wool wherever she could, within the state and nationally.
Frances Aleman was quoted in Sheep and Man; An America Saga saying “I married into the sheep industry, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. It is a way of life I have loved, and a wonderful way to raise a family. Sheepmen should be proud of their history, because they have such a rich one.”
She was a devout Baptist, taught Sunday School at the First Baptist Church in Buckeye, and helped support two missionaries. Her husband, John Sr., was a devout Catholic, but they respected and supported each other’s beliefs.
Together, they had one son, John Jr., born in 1943. He started working summers at the Williams ranch at age 9, staying for a week, helping the sheepherders, loading and moving the burros from camp to camp, hauling water, building fences, and helping with the sheep. He joined his father in ownership in 1967 along with his wife, Claudia Jo Nichols, whom he had married in 1961. They had two children, John III and Heidi Jo. They took over running the company when John Sr. passed away in 1972. John and Claudia Jo divorced in 1977. He ran the company until 1978 when he sold the ewes and the ranch to Joe and Carmen Auza. John ran feeder lambs until 1980, when he married Kathy Wolfswinkel. John and Kathy started Aleman Sheep and Machine Company in Higley, Arizona, following John’s passion for mechanics and race cars. From an early age, he displayed amazing mechanical skills, from sheep trucks and roadsters to the nitromethane AA fuel-altered car “The Sheepherder.”
His daughter, Heidi Aleman-Serrano, joined his wife, Kathy, in continuing to help with the annual Make It With the Wool Arizona competition, which they sponsor the Aleman Memorial Scholarship in memory of Frances, John Sr., and John Jr., Make It With Wool celebrated its 75th anniversary as a national Competition in Ft. Worth, Texas, in 2023. Kathy and Heidi attended and sponsored a National award in their honor. The Arizona Make It With Wool competition is held each year in November, and the Arizona Wool Producers’ Auxiliary sponsors the contest. A monetary award is given in Aleman’s name for the first-place senior. It is still going strong today. Frances would be pleased with this competition. The family is proud of its part in the heritage of the sheep industry here in Arizona.
Affiliations
John Aleman
Arizona Wool Producers Director - 27 Years
Kaibab Advisory Board
National Wool Producers
Frances Aleman
Arizona Wool Producers Auxiliary -Past President
American Sheep Producers Council - Chairwoman